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HOLLINGER 
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MILL RUN F3.1543 



SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS. 



SPEECH OF HON. LEWIS D; CAMPBELL, 

, i/>, OF OHIO, 

In the House of Representatives, 

IN REPLY TO HIS COLLEAGUE, MR. J. R. GIDDINGS, 

The Senate^s Amendments to the Deficieri^^jSf^ is^S-^^^V^nsideration, 



Mr. PHELPS obtained the floor on the con- 
clusion of Mr. GiDDiXGs's remarks, but yielded 
to Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, for explanation. 

Mr. CAMPBELL said: 

Mr. Speaker: I regret the sudden indisposi- 
tion of my colleague, [Mr. Giddings,] which in- 
terrupted his remarks on the principles of this 
bill, this morning. I regret, also, that he 
should, under the peculiar circumstances which 
surround the question before the House, have 
deemed it necessary to indulge in such a line 
of remark as would seem to assail my course 
as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, 
in recommending that the House concur in 
those amendments of the Senate which provide 
appropriations to pay the necessary expenses of 
the Army and of the Judiciary. His motives 
in doing this, and in refuaJH^ me, as the chair- 
man of that committee and as his colleague, 
the slight privilege of a brief explanation, are 
best known to himself. Yesterday, when this 
subject was before the House, whilst I was en- 
titled to the floor, I yielded to him, frequently, 
without limit or condition, for such explana- 
tions or remarks as he desired to submit. His 
refusal to return me the courtesy to-day, in the 
face of these facts, has imposed on me the ne- 
cessity of throwing myself upon the liberality 
of my friend from Missouri, [Mr. Phelps.] 

It will be remembered that, at the time my 
colleague became suddenly ill, he remarked 
that I was a very young man, and intimated 
that, therefore, it was to be presumed the other 
gentlemen of the Committee of Ways and Means 
had " drawn the wool over my eyes," and that 
I did not comprehend the objects of the ap- 
propriations which we had recommended, nor 
the responsibilites which I had incurred. 

Mr. GIDDINGS. Will my friend permit me 
to explain ? 

Mr. CAMPBELL. Certainly. I am never 




^&^§^:*5 i'tioC^^s?^tend to my col- 
league that ^wwfiptesyr 

Mr. GIDDINGS. I am sorry my colleague 
should have conceived that I made such a 
remark. My idea was, and I think my words 
were, not that he was a young man, but that 
he was comparatively a young member, and 
that he never served before upon the Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means. 

Mr. CAMPBELL. My colleague is correct. 
I never before served on that important com- 
mittee — never upon any other committee having 
charge of any interests of great magnitude. I 
claim also to be a young man ; there is, there- 
fore, no difiiculty between us on these points. 
I admit, too, that he is a man of age and ex- 
perience, both in the House and out of it. 

True, Mr. Speaker, the Committee of Ways 
and Means bear an important relation to the 
great interests of our country. Their position 
is one of the highest responsibility, and no one 
knows better than the Speaker that I did not 
desire to occupy a place upon it. It is at all 
times surrounded by embarrassments ; and 
these are now greatly enhanced by the threat- 
ening aspect of our affairs at home and abroad, 
as well as by the peculiar complexion of parties 
upon this floor, and th^r relation to the Execu- 
tive branch of the Government. Having, how- 
ever, accepted it, and assumed these responsi- 
bilities, I have felt constrained by a sense of 
public duty to discard, as far as possible, mere 
partisan feeling, and to make an effort to dis- 
charge its functions with fidelity to every por- 
tion of the country, North and South, East and 
West ; and to every branch of the national 
service, without reference to differences of opin- 
ion upon the sectional issues which unfortunate- 
ly destroy that fraternal feeling which ought to 
prevail. 

Sir, my colleague, in the debate of yesterday, 






\ 



propounded to me, as chairman of the com- 
mittee, a question of much significance. Con- 
sidering his excited manner at the time, and 
the tone in which it was uttered, the inference 
seems plain, that he intended to create the im- 
pression that I had recommended to this House 
an appropriation of $27,000, to defray what he 
alleged were the corrupt expenditures of the 
Marshal of the Southern District of Ohio, in the 
reclamation of certain fugitives from Slavery. 
I have a few v/ords to say on this particular 
point, because the question of my colleague 
may carry with it an influence prejudicial to the 
committee, and because his position involves a 
principle of the utmost importance to the 
public. 

One amendment of the Senate appropriates 
$200,000 for the expenses of the Judiciary. 
The sum is necessary to pa/ the services ren- 
dered in your Federal courts, by judg.es, jurors, 
marshals, witnesses, &c. The Committee of 
Ways and Meaos, composed as it of six mem- 
bers opposed to the AdriJinistralion to three in 
favor of it, without a dissenting vote, recom- 
mended the appropriation. I can inform my 
colleague now, that the estimate from the De- 
partment of the Interior, upon which our action 
was predicated, did not embrace the costs, to 
which he alludes, of the marshal in arresting 
and returning the slaves in the late exciting 
case at Cincinnati. Those accounts are noi 
yet audited. Nor does it embrace a single 
dollar for the payment of those other items of 
costs, to which gentlemen have referred, speci- 
fied in the letter of Mr. Whittlesey, the Comp- 
troller, which exposes abuses iu the courts. 
Those claims have all been suspended by the 
Department, as gentlemen ought to know. 

Sir, your Committee of Ways and Means are 
entitled to common justice — if not fair treat- 
ment — by this side of the House. The system 
upon which appropriations are always made 
ought to be understood. A brief explanation 
will show how grossly unfair it is to hold the 
Committee of Ways and Means of this House 
accountable for the disbursement of the public 
funds by the Executive Departments. 

This House has before it the various appro- 
priation bills. One is for the support of the 
Army, another for the Navy, and others for the 
civil and diplomatic service, including the 
salaries to judges, marshals, &c. These bills, if 
passed, furnish the money in advance, to be 
disbursed between the 30th day of June, 1856, 
and the 1st day of July, 1837. Such has been 
the system always. Now, sir, suppose my col- 
league, during the discussion of one of these 
bills, reported from our committee, inquires of 
me whether any of the money embraced in its 
provisions will be used to execute the Fugitive 
Slave Law, and to return fugitives to bondage: 
if he does, I must answer that I do not know. 
Would he thereupon seek to make the impres- 
sion that, being a young member of the com- 
mittee, I come before the House and the coun- 



try, displaying disgraceful ignorance ? Why 
must I answer, ''I do not know?" Because 
the money is appropriated for the service of the 
future, and my vision is not far-reaching enough 
to enable me to inform the House that in thai 
future any slave will run away — that his master 
will follow him — that the marshal will catch 
him — that the commissioner will render a decree 
to return him — and that the accounting officers 
will pass the accounts. Any gentleman who 
propounds such a question to me, either ex- 
hibits a dispostion to place me in a false posi- 
tion, or betrays a want of acquaintance with the 
practical workings of our Government. 

Again, sir, there are gentlemen on this floor, 
from another section of this Union, who are, 
upon a principle, quite as much opposed to the 
laws punishing those engaged in the slave 
trade, as my colleague is to the Fugitive Slave 
Law. Suppose one of these follows the prece- 
dent set by my colleague with the inquiry, 
" Will any of ;the appropriations you recom- 
mend be applied to the enforcement of these 
laws punishing the slave trade as piracy ?" I 
must answer him as I do my colleague, " I do 
not know ; " because I cannot tell whether, be- 
tween July 1, 1856, and July 1, 1857, any per- 
son will be guilty of a breach of those laws, or 
there will occur any necessity for prosecutions. 
If my colleague, or any other member, will give 
me proof that they could give correct informa- 
tion in response to questions such' as these, 
which they may feel disposed to propound to 
me, I shall take great pleasure in withdrawing 
from the delicate post which I occupy, and in 
using my feeble influence in having it assigned 
to him. If the power to foretell the events of 
the future is indispensable to the proper dis- 
charge of the duties of the Ways and Means 
Committee, I certainly am misplaced. Gentle- 
men may find, in my colleagues on the com- 
mittee, and in me^!9i&^ta which might, perhaps, 
show that the Speaker erred in the organiza- 
tion of the House in assigning to us the posi- 
tions we respectively occupy. Certainly neither 
of us claim to be possessed of those high attri- 
butes of Deity which can discern the events of 
the iiiture. 

My colleague, I repeat, says truly that I am 
a young member of the committee. We Sill 
know that he is an old member of the House, 
and an ever-vigilant sentinel over the cause of 
Human Freedom and the rights of the down- 
trodden slave. Feeling that, on account of my 
youth and inexperience, I might be embar 
rassed in the new position assigned me, I 
thought I might in some respects be guided by 
his footsteps. In reference to appropriation 
bills, I looked into his record, as well as that of 
others, for lights to direct me in this new field 
of duty. 

Sir, it was but two years ago that there was 
much excitement in this city, and throughout 
the whole country, on account of the arrest of 
a colored man, who, being held in Slavery 



within view of the flag of Freedom which floats 
over this Hall, fled from his master. One An- 
iliony Burns, leavino^ his chains and his master 
behind bim in Virginia, reached Massachu- 
setts. The discovery of this fact caused much 
commotion in this national metropolis. Sena- 
tors and Representatives were excited, and 
there was '' running to and fro" in the avenues 
leading from the halls of legislation to the 
Presidential mansion I Cabinet councils were 
convened, to consider measures to return him. 
..-Despatches were sent from Executive authority, 
upon the lightning's wing, that the law shovld 
be exei:uted! The Army, the Navy, the Judi- 
ciary, were called on to execute the order! 
The press informed us that the court-rooms of 
Boston were guarded and surrounded by a host 
of deputy marshals under arms — that the streets 
of that great commercial emporium were block- 
ed up by armed troops of the Federal Govern- 
ment, whereby merchants pursuing their lawful 
vocations were prevented from getting to bank 
to meet their engagements on the last day of 
grace! All this occurred, sir, in your city of 
Boston. Congress had made the law, and that 
Constitution which we have all sworn to sup- 
port had provided a tribunal to expound it and a 
jiower to execute it! The Burns case was adju- 
dicated pursuant to the provisions of that law, 
and he decreed a slave ! Then, sir, a national 
vessel, built by money appropriated by Congress, 
with the stars and stripes floating from its mast, 
and manned by officers and crew paid from 
your National Treasury, bore that slave from 
that scene of excitement. Federal troops kept 
back the mighty masses, as he was removed 
from the court through Boston Common, under 
the branches of those wide-spreading, iron- 
bound elms, in whose shade the Adamses coun- 
selled with their compatriots in the stirring 
times of 1776! The vessel detailed for this 
peculiar service by our President received her 
interesting cargo, in the person of Burns! Her 
sails were filled with the free breezes of heaven, 
and she sped her way from that harbor, into 
which the tea. had been thrown by those strong 
arms which first struck for American independ- 
ence. What may have been the reflections 
which ran through the mind of that poor slave, 
if enlightened by historic knowledge of revolu- 
tionary incidents, when his eye rested for the 
last time upon Faneuil Hall, or the monument 
of Bunker Hill, as he was borne away to Slavery, 
God only knows! The law — inexorable law — 
to which even the " God-given rights" of indi- 
viduals to " life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness," are made to yield, for the purposes 
of " governments instituted among men" — de- 
manded that Burns should be taken from Bos- 
ton, and carried back to the shores of Virginia. 
He was returned to Slavery under the provisions 
of that law, the passage of which no one, not 
even my colleague, opposed wiih more deter- 
mination, because of its objectionable details, 
than I did in this Hou.se in 1850. The law 



was executed, as all our laws are required to 
be, until they are repealed by the law-making 
power, or declared unconstitutional (and there- 
fore void) by the courts, whose high preroga- 
tive it is to expound them, 

Mr. Speaker, through what instrumentalities 
did the Government pay the expenses of return- 
ing Burns to Slavery ? Not less ih&nffty tliou- 
sand dollars, I am informed, were taken from 
our Treasury to foot the bills for the reclama- 
tion of that one slave ! By what authority was 
the money appropriated ? In vindication of the 
committee, at the head of which I have had the 
honor to be placed, and by way of repelling any 
imputation which my colleague may have, unin- 
tentionally or otherwise, cast upon me, I assert 
the fact, that he approved, by his vote, the ap- 
propriation bill which provided the ways and 
means to take Burns back to Slavery, and to 
execute the Fugitive Slave Law ! That by his 
vote the money was furnished which paid for 
the manacles — if any were used — on that mem- 
orable occasion 

Mr. GIDDINGS. I think the gentleman is 
quite mistaken, I wish to explain. My col- 
league seems to insist 

Mr. CAMPBELL. I do not wish to insist 
on depriving my colleague of the right to ex- 
plain. If he desires the floor, he knows I al- 
ways yield to him. 

Mr. GIDDINGS. My colleague seems to in- 
sist that I had some personal allusion to him. 
Now, I discard that idea. If the opposite party, 
when they had the power to cheat the House, 
drew a,n appropriation to cover that expense, I 
knew they would do it; but I did not expect 
that my colleague, when he was appointed the 
head of the Committee of Ways and Means, 
would follow their example. I expected he 
would look out for himself. 

Mr. CAMPBELL. I will look out for myself; 
but, if my colleague rises for the purpose of 
charging me with an eft'ort to cheat the House, 
he is trespassing upon my courtesy, and 

Mr. GIDDINGS. Oh, no; no 

Mr. PHELPS. I desire, Mr. Speaker, to say 
.merely this one word : that when the gentleman 
from Ohio [Mr. Giddings] charges that the ma- 
jority of the last Congress had any disposition 
to or did practice any fraud on this House, he 
charges that which is untrue. The expendiiures 
arising from the execution of the Fugitive Slave 
Law are paid out of the Judiciary appropriation, 
which has always, up to this session, been made 
in the civil and diplomatic bill — or has been 
for several years past. I desire to repel the 
charge. I was a member of the Committee of 
Ways and Means at that time, and a member 
of the House ; and I was far from practicing 
any fraud on the House. 

Mr. GIDDINGS. I meant that their fraud 
was political — nothing more. 

Mr. CAMPBELL. My colleague has dis- 
claimed any charge of a purpose on my part to 
practice any fraud. Certainly he will not un- 



derstand me as taking the floor in any spirit of 
personal unkindness towards him, whatever 
may have been his purpose or intention in in- 
volving me, either directly or indirectly, in the 
charge of having recommended to this House 
an appropriation of money to pay what he as- 
serts are the corrupt expenditures on the part 
of the Marshal of the Southern District of Ohio. 
I have arisen with no design whatever to treat 
him unkindly, nor will I intentionally exhibit 
any want of courtesy. But, Mr. Speaker, it is 
due to the Committee of Ways and Means, and 
due to myself, that, in the face of such an im- 
putation as that which seemed to be made by 
the question and remarks of my colleague, I 
should vindicate my position. I do that in part 
by showing that my colleague, who is regarded 
as sleepless on the watchtower of Freedom here, 
has voted for the appropriation bills since the 
day the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, and 
under which the expenses of its execution have 
been defrayed, until the year 1855 ; and that 
it has been through the aid of his vote, the 
money was taken from the Treasury of the Uni- 
ted States to return Anthony Burns and others 
to Slavery. 

Mr. GIDDINGS, (Mr. Campbell yielding to 
him for explanation.) Will my colleague per- 
mit me merely to say, that my impression is, 
that I have never voted for these appropriation 
bills since 1850. I may have done so ; I am 
not certain. But I give it as my impression, 
that I never voted for a bill containing appro- 
priations to pay the expenditures under the 
Fugitive Slave Law. I have voted against it. 
Still, I may have been deceived. 

Mr. CAMPBELL. The Journal shows the 
facts. As I have already stated, the appropri- 
ation in the bill I have reported, and for which 
,my colleague seems to reprimand me, is like 
those for which he voted. It is an appropria- 
tion, in gross, for the execution of all the laivs 
of Congress, as it ought to be ; because the 
committee has no right to propose an appro- 
priation of money to execute one law, and re- 
fuse the supplies to execute another. 

Through every appropriation bill, commenc- 
ing in 1850, after the passage of the Fugitive 
Slave Law, to 1855, the money has been fur- 
nished to execute all laws, including that which 
is odious to my colleague, and to me, and to our 
constituents. He voted for them. He voted 
for the bill in 1850. He voted for it in 1851. 
In 1852 and 1853, there was not even a division 
called, so unanimous was the House in voting 
the appropriation bill. The bill, in 1854, con- 
taining the appropriation out of which the 
$50,000 to defray the expenses for returning 
Anthony Burns to slavery were paid, part of 
which came from the pockets of my colleague's 
constituents on the Western Reserve, was voted 
for by him. Following out the system, thus 
supported by him, of naaking appropriations 
for the execution of all the laws of the land, 
the Committee of Ways and Means has recom- 



mended the general appropriation, which is 
now so much opposed by him. Having left 
such a record, my honorable colleague seems 
to arraign me before the House and the coun- 
try ; and the proof shows that I have done 
nothing more than follow his illustrious exam- 
ple. During the discussion of the bills for 
which he voted, he did not inquire of the chair- 
man of the Ways and Means Committee, to as- 
certain whether they contained any appropria- 
tion for which the expenses of executing the 
Fugitive Slave Law would be paid. No, sir ; 
these searching, and, to some extent, embar- 
rassing inquiries, seem to have been reserved 
for my special benefit. They are put at me, 
" a very young member of the committee," 
very adroitly, by my colleague, who has twenty 
years' experience on this floor, under circum- 
stances of a peculiar character. Yielding the 
floor to him, without restriction, yesterday, I 
requested of him this morning a few moments 
for explanation, which he peremptorily refused. 
These facts, in connection with others, of re- 
cent occurrence, would indicate a disposition 
to make political, if not personal, war upon me, 
and to withhold from me the right of self-de- 
fence. 

My colleague, however, asserted yesterday 
a rule of political action which I will notice 
briefly, because it involves a principle as erro- 
neous as it is dangerous in its tendency. I in- 
quired of him whether, if he were President of 
the United States, having taken the oath to 
support the Constitution, and see that the laws 
be faithfully exeaUed, he would refuse to exe- 
cute the' Fugitive Slave Law? He replied : "/ 
lonuld do as Thomas Jefferson did. When I 
found an unconstittitional laio upon the statute- 
hook, I loould treat it as such.^' My colleague 
doubtless intended that the House should draw 
the inference (as it did) that he would sustain a 
President in refusing to execute any law which 
he (the President) deemed unconstitutional, 
although the Supreme Court might have deci- 
ded otherwise. Sir, I am against this " one 
man power," and will in no manner sustain 
such a principle as is here declared. A Presi- 
dent who would act upon it, would usurp the 
powers of, and render subservient to his will, 
our judicial tribunals. If his opinions of the 
constitutionality of acts of Congress are to ex- 
tend beyond his right to veto, if he may nullify 
at pleasure the solemn decisions of the courts 
in regard to the constitutionality of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law, he may assume the same pre- 
rogative in regard to any other law passed by 
the Senate and House of Representatives, ap- 
proved by a President, and confirmed by ju- 
dicial decisions. Thus, sir, upon the principle 
laid down by my colleague, the President might 
concentrate in himself all the powers of Gov- 
ernment, and reduce us to a practical despot- 
ism. If he may thus nullify one law, v/hich is 
objectionable to him, why may he not Ind defi- 
ance to all other laws ? 



If, therefore, gentlemen expect me, as chair- 
man of the Committee of Ways and Means, to 
wil.hhoM from the Executive the money neces- 
sary to execute any one of the laws on the 
statute-book, merely because in my judgmerit, 
or in the President's, it may be deemed uncon- 
stitutional or inexpedient, I say now, unequiv- 
ocally, they will be disappointed. The com- 
mittee is not, nor should not be, invested with 
the high powers which would enable it to r-ver- 
rule the decisions of the courts, and block the 
wheels of Government. Our duties in the com- 
*nittee room are clearly defined. We have no 
right to originate and report a bill repealing 
or modifyiJiff the Fugitive Slave Law, or the 
Nebraska-Kansas act. Should we do this, we 
would receive, properly, a rebuke from the 
House for usurping the powers which, under 
its rules, belong to other committees. Having 
no power to act on the subject directly, how 
can gentlemen insinuate that, in violation of 
the provisions of the rules of the House, we 
should, in a clandestine or indirect manner, 
nullify those laws by withholding a report in 
favor of appropriations which may be necessary 
to execute them ? I ask nothing for the com- 
mittee, or for myself, from those disposed to 
make war upon this point, but fair, honest, and 
maniy dealing. If there are laws in force 
odious to gentlemen, let them demand their 
repeal. Let these exciting sectional questions 
be met in the spirit of true statesmanship — in 
the bold and independent spirit of an honest 
sincerity! My constituents, sir, are in favor, 
as I am, of a modification of the Fugitive Slave 
Law, so as to secure the trial by jury, &c. 
The law, as it stands, is odious to them. It is 
odious in its details to me. But, sir, I will not 
strike at it in any cowardly spirit. I cannot 
consent to secrete myself in the Ways and 
Means Committee room, and there play the 
nullifier, by refusing to report the ordinary ap- 
propriation bills, without which there must be 
an end to our Government, because the means 
may thus be furnished to execute a law upon 
our statute-book, the vitality of which is ac- 
knowledged by our courts, for the only reason 
that my colleague and I and our constituents 
■were opposed to its enactment. 

I may not comprehend the policy which my 
honorable colleague seems to propose. Does 
he propose a modification or repeal of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law, or of the Kansas act? If he 
does, let him report his bills through the ap- 
propriate committees, and put them to a vote, 
rather than attack them indirectly in a manner 
tending, if not designed, to place me and my 
colleagues of the committee in a false light be- 
fore the country. 

At the State Convention in Ohio, last July, 
my venerable colleague was on the committee 
which made a platform for the Republican 
party. He reported no proposition to modify 
or repeal the Fugitive Slave Law. He was a 
conspicuous member of the National Conven- 



tion of Republicans which lately promnlged 
another platform from Pittsburgh. There is 
in that, I believe, not a word of complaint 
against that law. It is therefore " strange — 
'tis passing strange," that in view of these 
thingp he should have arraigned me on a 
charge of reporting bills which may provide 
the means, if occasion demands, for the execu- 
tion of a law which he has not proposed to 
modify or repeal as a member of this body. I 
marvel at the course of gentlemen in this re- 
spect, when- I observe that the National Con- 
vention of that great party of which they are 
members has proposed no changes in that law 
through the process of that legitimate, open, 
and statesmanlike system of legislation con- 
templated by our Constitution. 

If, however, this new issue, made by my col- 
leajiue with me yesterday, which seems to adopt 
nullification as the remedy, is to be a test of 
orthodoxy in the Republican party, let it be 
known. If that partv, or any other, intends to 
repeal or modify the Fugitive Slave Law, let it 
be openly avowed. If, sir, either of the parties 
which are to meet soon to nominate their can- 
didates, intend to skulk the direct question of 
modification or repeal, and to place themselves 
upon that principle of nullification which, in 
defiance of Constitutions and laws, and decis- 
ions of courts, requires the President, when in- 
augurated, to violate his solemn oath to exe- 
cute the laws, the country should know it. If 
any candidate claims for Presidential authori- 
ty this revolutionary, this despotic power, I 
wish to record my name as his uncompromi- 
sing foe. I am for maintaining the supremacy 
of the Constitution and the laws, and for de- 
fending each department of Government — 
Legislative, Executive, and Judicial — from any 
infringement which tends to consolidation. 
These are principles of national security, when 
the sectional storm rages most wildly. I have 
defended them in past life, and expect to 
maintain them in time to come, here and else- 
where. 

I have always held, and still maintain, that 
the enactments of Congress in reference to the 
absorbing question of Slavery — whether to ex- 
clude it from the Territories, or to give means 
to reclaim " fugitives " — are final when ap- 
proved by the President, until they are modified 
or repealed by the Legislative power, or made 
void by the decisions of our Supreme Court. 
That spirit which seeks to abrogate the laws 
made, in the manner provided by the Constitu- 
tion, in violation of its obligations, or through 
a forcible resistance of the lawfullyconstituted 
authorities of the Government, is that of "nul- 
lification and disunion 1" It leads us to bloody 
revolution — to civil war — to anarchy ! I cannot, 
will not, follow it. No party trammels can force 
me to pursue the path to which it points. I 
denounce it, sir, whether it displays its hideous 
head in Charleston, South Carolina, or in Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts. I denounce it, sir, this morn- 



6 



ing, when it seems to liave planted itself in the 
"young giant State" of the West which gave 
me birth, and which owes all her glorious pros- 
perity of the past, and all her hopes in prospect- 
ive, to a faithful adherence to the Constitution, 
to the supremacy of law, and to the Union of 
the States! 

I have sought the floor, Mr. Speaker, with no 
purpose of following my colleague through the 
meandrous route of his remarks. He has said 
much which, is my judgment, is not pertinent 
to the question before the House. He has dwelt 
with power upon the outrages in Kansas. When 
that subject is legitimately and directly before 
us, I expect to enter the field of discussion, 
and to go as far as the farthest in protecting 
the people of that Territory in the full enjoy- 
ment of their le?al and constitutional rights. 

Mr. GIDDINGS. Will my colleague permit 
me to ask him a question ? 

Mr. CAMPBELL. As many as you please 
to put. 

Mr. GIDDINGS. I merely wish to ask my 
colleague, if, as the chairman of the Committee 
of Ways and Means, he has guarded against 
paying these troops for enforcing the bogus Leg- 
islature of Kansas ; and whether he would be 
willing to make an appropriation for paying the 
expenses for carrying into execution the laws 
passed by that bogus Legislature. 

Mr. CAMPBELL. My colleague is an old 
member, and knows that the Committee of Ways 
and Means have no right to introduce into their 
appropriation bills, acts of special legislation. 
We did undertake to do it in this bill. When 
we had discovered that there was jrreat corrup- 
tion existing in our marine hospital system, we 
presented the facts and documents from the 
Treasui'y Department, so clearly showing the 
necessity of our proposed reform proviso, that 
iio member could hp^rbor a doubt ; yet the whole 
bill was rejected, with the aid of my colleague's 
vote, for the alleged reason that special legisla 
tion in an appropriation bill was a violation of 
the rules of the House. 

Mr. Speaker, my colleague objects also to 
the appropriation for the support of the Army ; 
and complains, perhaps with reason, that troops 
are quartered in or near Kansas. In defence 
of the Committee of Ways and Means, I have 
to say that the committee have no power to di- 
rect the movements of troops. That power be- 
longs to the Secretary of War, under the law. 
If you would restrict his powers in this regard, 
the bill for that purpose should originate with 
the Committee on Military Affairs, of which the 
honorable gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. 
Quitman | is chairman, and not with the Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means. 

Mr. GIDDINGS, (Mr. Campbell yielding the 
floor to him.) Let me put the question directly 
to my colleagae : Will he vote to put money 
into the hands of the Executive, for the purpose 
of enforcing the laws of the bogus Legislature 
of Kansas ? 



Mr. CAMPBELL. I will answer my col- 
league. One party asserts there is a bogus Leg- 
islature — the other, that it is genuiue, elected 
honestly and fairly. This House, after a long 
contest, have sent a commission of its own mem- 
bers to take testimony, and make report upon 
the issue. It is proper to withhold a decision 
of the question until their report is made. Should 
it be established that the Legislature was con- 
stituted by force, or in fraud of the fundamental 
law under which the Territory was org?.nized, 
I shall regard all the acts of the legislative body 
so formed as void— absolutely void — and would 
not vote a dollar to enforce them. 

Mr. GIDDINGS, (Mr. Campbell yielding the 
floor to him.) I cannot allow my colleague to 
escape my interrogatory. I ask him to answer 
the question distinctly. I put this question to 
him : Will you report funds to ba placed in the 
hands of the Executive, for enforcing the laws 
of this Legislature in Kansas? 

Mr. CAMPBELL. My colleague will never 
find me trying to escape from him. He may 
quiet his mind on that point. I will never rec- 
ommend nor vote a dollar to enforce any act 
of any body in that Territory, which has been 
organized by force, and in violation of the pro- 
visions of its orpranic law, 

Mr. GIDDINGS, (Mr. Campbell yielding 
him the floor.) Will my colleague answer my 
question directly? 

Mr. CAMPBELL. I have twice answered 
my colleague, and he is not satisfied. If he ex- 
pects rae, as a member of the National Legisla- 
ture, to decide upon a most important question, 
in the absence of the authentic evidence which 
is now being taken by a committee of this House, 
and to commit myself on mere newspaper or 
telegraphic report, I tell him he has mistaken 
his man. When your committee give us their 
report — when we shall have all the facts here 
before us in an authentic form — if it shall then 
appear that this was not a legally-constituted 
Legislature, I shall act and vote accordingly. 

Mr. GIDDINGS. (Mr. Campbell yielding the 
floor.) With ray colleague's permission, I want 
to know of him, if, with the history of the coun- 
try before him, he would refuse to vote the 
money for the carrying out these laws ? 

Mr. CAMPBELL. The question of my col- 
league has certainly no liberality or fairness in 
it. Newspaper reports, according to my expe- 
rierKje for the last few months, ought not to carry 
with them so much force as to justify us in de- 
ciding definitely a great national question like 
this. I do not regard the representations of the 
press and the lines of telegraph quite as reliable, 
in making up the "history of the country," as 
I should the report of the committee we have 
sent out. I deem it my duty, as a judge or juror 
summoned here, to reserve my judgment or 
verdict in reference to the great question iu issue, 
until our commissioners present their report of 
testimony. To relieve my colleague, however, 
I will say, that from my information, 'through 



7 



the press and private correspondence, I believe 
there have been gross wronr^s perpetrated in 
Kansas. I will not pronounce my final judg- 
ment, however, until the facts are presented by 
our absent committee. I deem this course alike 
due to the commission, to the dignity of this 
House which sent it, and to the importance of 
the question involved. 

Mr. Speaker, I was diverted by my colleague 
from a notice of the objections of gentlemen to 
th§ /'ienate's amendment, which proposes to 

^.^tipply a deficiency in the Army appropriation. 

' Some members deny the right of the Senate to 
amend our appropriation bills. Concurring in 
the opinion that it is the exclusive right of this 
House to originate bills, I cannot for a moment 
question the right of the Senate to amend them. 
The Senate amended this bill, on requestor the 
House Committee of Ways and Means, by ap- 
propriating nearly three hundred thousand dol- 
lars for a deficiency in the contingent fund of 
this House. That item was necessary to pay 
for the books whicb honorable members had 
voted to themselves — for the cushioned chairs 
on which they sit — for the lounges on which 
they luxuriate in their committee rooms — for the 
ice which cools the water they drink, &c. The 
Senate was not denounced here for that allow- 
ance. Oh, no ! thttt was a pressing necessity, 
and their amendment was carried without a dis- 
senting vote ! It was not until we reached the 
Senate's amendment which provided the means 
to pay for the pork and beans of the poor soldier 
who has been sent to defend the frontier, that 
honorable members discovered that the Sen- 
ate have perpetrated an outrage upon the 
constitutional rights of the House ! Then 
the cry is raised here : " lo ! the poor Indian ! " 
It is said that he is to be scalped through this 
amendment I and that freedom is to be " crushed 
out " in Kansas ! 

I am glad that my colleague's sytnpathy is 
aroused to-day for the "red American" — who 
was truly free, and 

"rative here, 



And lo the inaiiutT bora 

as well as for the down-trodden African. Your 
Committee of Ways and Means are certainly 
not chargeable with any warlike disposition to- 
wards the remnant of these tribes of the forest 
who have been driven from their hunting- 
grounds to the far-off coast of the Pacific. Gen- 
tlemen should remember that only a few weeks 
ago the gentleman from Oregon, [Mr. Lane,] 
and the chairman of the Military Committee, 
[Mr. Quitman,] presented a bill to appropriate 
^300,000 to suppress Indian hostilities in Ore- 
gon and Washington Territories. Although 
the language of the bill indicated warlike treat- 
ment of those tribes, my colleague made no ob- 
jection. The bill was about to pass unanimous- 
ly, when, on my application, it was sent to the 
Ways and Means Committee. On the sugges- 
tion of my honorable colleague of that com- 
mittee, [Mr. Cobb,] from Georgia, the phrase- 



ology was so changed before we reported it as 
to secure the expenditure of the money to the 
object of feeding, clothing, and treating with 
kindness the friendly tribes. In consequence 
of this change by that committee, the funds 
were placed under direction of the President, 
to the credit of the Department of the Interior, 
instead of that of War. At the same time, it 
is true, we sent gunpowder; but that was for 
the purpose of repelling the invasions of those 
hostile Indians who, under British influence 
and with British arms, descend upon our coast 
from Vancouver's Island, and massacre indis- 
criminately our pioneer friends who have gone 
there expecting the protection of the Govern- 
ment. 

Mr. Speaker, I, too, may have some feeling 
of friendship for the poor Indian. My colleague 
knew much of him from personal observation 
in the war of 1812. I was too young then, 
either to fight with the friendly tribes or against 
those employed by England to destroy the 
pioneer settlements of Ohio ; but, sir, after that 
war closed, I was led, in childhood, through the 
dark paths of the forest by the friendly hand 
of the Indian. I have read, too, the history of 
his wrongs; and there is no feeling of my 
heart which would lead me to a desire eithejr 
to kill or scalp him! Your statuary in the ro- 
tunda presents some points illustrative of his 
native disposition towards the white man, and 
of the treatment he has received in return at 
our hands, as a people, in ditt'erent periods of 
our national progress. Over the eastern door- 
way, he is represented with the ear of corn in 
his hand, extending it to the pilgrim father, 
when, after a long and turbulent voyage across 
the great ocean, half-famished, he first planted 
his foot upon the shores of America. The In- 
dian received the pilgrim fathers in friendship, 
and fed them. 

Look, sir, to your left, after adjournment, as 
you pass through that rotunda, at the elegant 
work of art (?) which ornaments another point 
to the westward. That represents a later pe- 
riod in the history of our progress. There is 
Boone, in the " dark and bloody " ground of 
Kentucky, his foot upon one dead Indian, shot 
by his unerring rifle, his arm raised, plunging 
his hunting-knife into the heart of another ! 

And now, sir, the destiny of the red man is 
cast upon the coast of the Pacific. Driven 
from one ocean bounding the continent west- 
ward to the other, he can go no further ! We 
have forced him to the jumping-ofif place! 
What wonder that he should grow desperate, 
and draw his knife in defence ? Sir, I cannot 
without emotion listen to the speeches of war- 
loving gentlemen on this floor, which tell us 
the only way to control the Indian is to kill 
and scalp him ! If that is to be our policy, 
when all but the last man shall be "scalped," I 
would suggest a design for an additional stat- 
uette, to be placed in one of the wings of the 
Capitol addition, when completed. Let it be 



fliat last man standing upon the rock against 
which the waves of the Pacific beat fearfully, 
with his arms folded with his native dignity, 
and his eye mournfully cast eastward towards 
the hunting grounds and the " green graves of 
his sires " from which he had been driven — 
ready, as the scalping-knife of the white man, 
and not the ear of corn, is presented to him, 
to take that one more bound westward neces- 
sary to exterminate the last of his race I 

Mr. Speaker, thanking my friend from Mis- 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



souri [. Illlilllilllllilllilllllilllilllil^^^^ have 

done. ''"'I'l'illiilllilllllilllilllil^^^^ to me 

in the 011 897 799 3 ^intain 

and uphoiu i/uc ot._^^, v.,.,v.»>,;y ^^ ^^ tution 

and laics; and I trust that all my acts may 
spring from that spirit of generous philanthropy 
which seeks, with law and order as its means, 
to elevate the whole human family, without 
regard to color or condition, in that scale of 
moral grandeur for which God designed man 
on the day of creation. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

UELL k BLANOHARD, PRINTERS. 

1856. .. ■• ■ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011897 799 3 # 



HOLUNGER 

pH8.5 

MILL RUN F3-1543 



